Although his perimeter shooting is needed, starting small forward Peja Stojakovic is expected to miss his seventh consecutive game tonight when the Hornets play the Houston Rockets in a crucial Southwest Division contest with playoff implications.

Stojakovic said before Saturday's game that he was experiencing sharp pains running down from his lower back to his legs, a problem he experienced in 2006 when he tried to come back to play after requiring back surgery.

Hornets Coach Byron Scott said before Monday's shootaround that he would not have an update until possibly tonight regarding Stojakovic's situation after he speaks to trainer Terry Kofler. But Scott said they are in no rush for his return until he is healthy. The team officially list him as a having back spasms.

"Sometimes it's slow, sometimes it's fast,'' said Scott, regarding Stojakovic's recovery. "Peja being in his early 30s, maybe that has something to do with it as well. It's no big rush for us right now.

"Until Terry tells me something differently, it's the same thing as it was last week. Some stiffness and a little sore. Once we get all of that kind of taken care of, we'll just go from there. Right now, we haven't been very aggressive as far as trying to treat it. So that's one of the things we talked about.''